A myriad of well known materials, components, and methods are, or can be, used in the construction of a foundation for small to moderately sized residential and commercial structures. Generally, the foundations for buildings of this type are constructed by using standard building methods, and are generally constructed of masonry such as brick, or brick in combination with other masonry, steel, concrete, or any other suitable material or combination of materials. One such standard building method that has evolved over the last few decades is referred to as modular construction. Generally, modular construction is a building technique or method that employs the use of components that are made up of separate, generally pre-made, modular units that can be easily transported, arranged, and joined. The components are generally manufactured at a remote location and then transported to the building site where they are joined together to form the building. Modular construction is an important building technique because its use of pre-manufactured components usually does not require the use of as many skilled workers, such as carpenters for the framing, or brick or concrete masons for the foundation walls. Other reasons why modular construction is important include time savings, and less dependency on the weather. All of which lead, or can lead, to cost savings, which can be significant since a substantial portion of the costs are associated with labor.
Modular construction systems come in a variety of embodiments. An early example is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,295,216. This patent describes the use of precast, essentially non-stress bearing, components in combination with field cast members, and it also describes the precast units as being made of essentially lightweight porous concrete, which act as an absorption unit tending to allow the aqueous field cast concrete to rapidly and uniformly set. Another example is the prefabricated building and method disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,443,992 to Shechter. This patent describes a modular home that is preferably constructed at an off-site location from pre-cast concrete wall panels. These wall panels are attached to a steel cage through the welding of steel rings, (which are embedded within the concrete panels), to metal rings that are welded to the cage. After the concrete panels are attached and a floor and roof are added to the structure, the building unit is transported to the location where the unit's foundation has been prepared for placement of the unit.
With respect to the foundation of a building, it is used to transfer and spread the weight of a building to the ground upon which the building is constructed. Because of this, a building's foundation may be a building's most important or most critical feature. A foundation is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,613 issued to Kinoshita. This invention is for a foundation for a wooden house that is generally comprised of blocks having grooves, which are designed to receive tenons in order to interlock adjoining foundation blocks. Other foundation patents include U.S. Pat. No. 5,735,090 issued to Papke, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,799,399 issued to Schultz. The Papke patent describes a foundation and a method for forming a foundation that is essentially comprised of attaching extruded modular forms to a track, and then filling the forms with concrete and/or insulating material at the work site. Comparably, the Schultz patent teaches a method for forming monolithic footings and foundation walls at the work site that is essentially comprised of interconnecting prefabricated panels and then filling the interconnected panels with concrete.
Because of the importance of the foundation to the overall structure of a building it would be beneficial if the foundation could be made in a way that allows the foundation to uniformly provide the support that the building needs. At the same time, however, it would be beneficial to home buyers if the costs associated with home building could be reduced, which would allow home buyers the opportunity to get more house for their money. Consequently, it would be particularly useful to be able to fabricate a foundation of consistently high quality that can be readily erected, yet erected with the use of less labor, especially costly skilled labor, and it would be even more useful if such foundations can be incorporated into a foundation kit that could be either designed to be used to construct a particular structure, or custom designed to build an individual home buyer's dream house.